Pros and Cons

So you’re interested in getting into the game industry.

There’s Pros and Cons to everything and it also applies for this industry. In this section I’ll go over what’s awesome and what sucks about being in the game industry from my experience. I like bad news first so let’s do that first!

Worst things are layoffs. Most game companies rely on game sales for the company to stay afloat. It’s a common thing for people in the game industry to move around a lot due to projects getting cancelled or game sales just tanked. Bigger companies are usually more stable but not all the time. Don’t be surprised if you do get laid off and most importantly, don’t take it personal. It’s just how the industry is. Like I said, not everything is rainbows and unicorns.

Overtime. I personally haven’t experienced this in a really bad way. Everytime I did do overtime, it was my choice. There was no axe hanging over my head. However, I have heard a lot of nightmare stories from co workers about their past experience so they do exist. My take on this is if the managers are great at their job, there shouldn’t be that much of overtime. But things do slip here and there. It’s your choice.

Health. This is something that I think a lot of devs don’t take care of. We sit for 8 hours a day, come home to play games and sit around more until it’s sleep time. This is very unhealthy of a lifestyle. It’s good to get in the habit of exercising and eating healthy every day. Physical and mental health directly effects your performance at work, so please do take care of yourself.

You work with passionate people. This is a great thing but also could be bad. When people are passionate, they have strong opinions on it, which causes clashes and breeds negativity. It’s very important for you to not fall into that vortex and keep a cool head on your shoulder.

Pros:

You make games for a living.

Yeap! You make games, then come home to play games, then go back to making games in the morning. GAMES GAMES GAMES!

You can make a pretty good living if you hone your skills and climb the ladder of seniority.

Usually a great fun environment.

You work with other passionate gamers which is awesome since it’s really easy to relate to your peers.